


The Blue Jay and The Bunny

by pomegranateboy



Series: The Blue Jay and The Bunny [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, BAMF Tony Stark, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Extremis (Marvel), Extremis Pepper Potts, Extremis Tony Stark, Fluff, Gen, Graphic Violence, Howard Stark is an ass, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hydra (Marvel), Hyperpolyglot Tony Stark, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kidnapping, M/M, Medical Procedures, Multilingual Tony Stark, Not Canon Compliant, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Violence, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier Tony Stark, but only kinda, it sounds angstier than it is, just wait a little bit, more tags to come, there is fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2019-11-28 04:56:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18203825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pomegranateboy/pseuds/pomegranateboy
Summary: What if Howard Stark knew that Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD? What if he just... didn't care? In fact, what if he just sent Tony away to be raised by the organization?





	1. The Asset

**Author's Note:**

> this chapter includes references to abuse to infants (not super heavy, just mentioned) so beware! there will be some dark themes to this story, but I promise there will be a happy ending!  
> Кролик - bunny (literal form)

Howard Stark knew very well that Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD. After all, he was the founder of the organization and was very involved with all of the projects that took place. What Howard Stark also knew was how to make the best out of a bad situation. Hydra had brilliant minds and amazing ideas, so why should he eradicate them when he could still use their genius?

 

He knew that it would be many, many years before they would truly make their move, and he would most likely be dead by then if they were smart. So, Howard did what he did best, he held his cards to his chest and let the situation take its course.

 

Over time, really since Steve had gone under, Howard's ideology and moral compass had changed quite a bit. When he had first learned of Hydra having infiltrated SHIELD, he hesitated in leaving them be. Now though, he willingly  _ worked  _ with them.

 

Gone was the man who believed in justice and the American way, now he believed that peace came from bloodshed and that war was necessary for progression. So when he first saw the Winter Soldier, he didn't see Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s friend and a Howling Commando, he saw a soldier and an Asset.

 

The Asset was to never lay eyes on Howard Stark. Nobody knew what would happen if he recognized Howard, but they didn’t want to risk so many years of process in their brainwashing and work. When Howard surveyed the Asset, it was always through a pane of one-way glass and a steel door or two. Howard took notes on the arm, how to improve it, and any other notes that the Asset’s handlers might need for upgrades. Physical or otherwise.

 

Howard Stark’s intelligence made it so he climbed the ranks of Hydra very quickly. In only a few short years after he had learned of their infiltration, he became one of the higher-ups. Third in line for command. That made it so he had priority over most others for using the Asset. While the Asset was sent on political assassinations and missions, some could use him for their own personal wants and needs. He was an object for them to use and control as they saw fit. By now, Howard didn’t see anything wrong with that.

 

Soon, Anthony was born. Anthony Edward Stark was an accident. Howard needed someone to carry on his legacy, he knew that, but he didn’t plan for it in Anthony. That’s why Howard sent him away only days after he was born; so he didn’t have to take care of him. Maria either didn’t care, or didn’t notice. Howard told her that he had sent the child to a care center because they traveled so much. In her drug induced haze, she didn’t see anything wrong with that statement.

 

The Hydra soldiers, if they could even be called that, who were put in charge of taking care of Anthony were inadequate. They didn’t seem to understand that they weren’t meant to hurt the child, but make sure that it did not die and was taught how to survive. They liked to see how hard they had to step on the baby for him to start crying. At only a few weeks old, he was already covered in bruises and learning when to stay quiet.

 

While Howard didn’t care much for the child, he still had the Stark legacy to carry, so their treatment of him wouldn’t do. Suddenly, a solution came to him. The Asset. He talked to his higher ups and convinced them to make the soldier take care of the child, saying that it would develop his skills with children. It would come in handy on missions when a child might get in the way, which was surprisingly often, and it would raise a new and different kind of asset for Hydra. A genius that might be able to do what Howard could once he died or was killed.

 

The Asset could not remember the last time he had interacted with a child. To be fair, there was very little he could remember. But now here he was, in a spacious room with more than acceptable living conditions that he had been led to when he woke up, with a child, a baby, thrust into his arms the moment he had entered.

 

His handlers started saying the Words and the Asset struggled not to hurt the child in his attempts to resist what they were doing, but he couldn’t stop them. “Ready to comply.”

 

His handler nodded firmly and continued speaking in harsh Russian tones. “You are to take care of this child. It’s name is Anthony. Make sure that Anthony is alive and well the next time we return.”

 

With that, his handler turned on his heel and left the room. The Asset stood there, uncertain of what to do now, so he did recon of the room he was placed into. There were no cameras, no recording devices, no windows, and two doors. One lead to the hall of the bunker and the other led to a bathroom. The bathroom with equipped with a bath and shower, a toilet, and a sink. There was simple soap, but little more. In the main room, there was a large bed, a wardrobe, a kitchen area with a stove and refrigerator, as well as another sink.

 

The Asset placed the baby down on the bed carefully, still very unsure if what to do, but feeling as if he should let the child rest. The child, Anthony, who had previously been sleeping, stirred. The Asset froze where he was and waited for him to become more aware of his surroundings. Anthony blinked slowly, looking around the room, a second later his big brown eyes met piercing blue ones and they both froze.

 

“ Кролик .”

 

The Asset exhaled sharply, surprised with himself at the sudden outburst, speaking suddenly was so unlike his training to stay silent no matter the circumstance.

 

Anthony drew out emotions in the Asset that he didn’t even know he had, he suddenly felt a deep desire to protect this child, no matter the costs. Tendrils of love and affection wrapped around the Asset and squeezed him until he felt like he couldn't breath when he looked at the child. Anthony’s big brown eyes looked at him curiously.

  
He tilted his head slightly and the Asset felt that emotion plant itself even deeper into his chest. ‘ _ You will love him and you will never let him go. _ ’ It seemed to say. He couldn’t find it in himself to argue.


	2. Anthony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the early days of anthony's time with the asset

The first time his handlers returned to check up on them was 127 days later. Occasionally someone would come in to deliver food or more clothes, but they never spoke or looked at the Asset and Anthony. The Asset was making warm milk for Anthony, an instinct or habit that immediately came to him from seemingly nowhere, while Anthony sat on the bed and made quiet babbling noises. Suddenly the door opened and the Asset stood at defense between Anthony and the open door out of habit, in the doorway was one of his handlers, who surveyed the room with a watchful eye.

 

“Progress?” His handler asked in Russian as the Asset dropped his defensive posture.

 

“The child is healthy.” The Asset stated.

 

His handler nodded slowly, “Is it noisy?” The Asset looked to Anthony who was looking at the new person curiously, if not hesitantly.

 

“No.” 

 

His handler looked into the bathroom, not quite turning his back on the Asset, “There will be times where the child will be taken away. You are to stay in this room, await further instruction, and not exit when that happens. You will be extracted for missions when the need may arrive. It will also need to learn to speak, make sure that happens.”

 

The Asset nodded, “Yes.” His handler stopped in front of Anthony and graped his chin roughly, the Asset had to stop himself from lashing out at that action. Anthony’s eyes welled up, but he did not cry or make noise.

 

The handler hummed in seeming approval, “In a few days you will receive books for educating it.” The way that he was referring to Anthony as if he were an object made the Asset’s blood boil for an unknown reason.

 

“Understood.”

 

Anthony took great interest in the books, spending months and months flipping through the pages. He enjoyed the pictures in them. Most, if not all of the books, were not created for children. They were heavy in information and in weight, but that didn’t matter to Anthony. The Asset had also taken to speaking near constantly so that Anthony could learn to speak as an example. He did not want to refer to himself as the Asset constantly, so he used a codename that they had used often many years ago. Blue Jay.

 

“Anthony, Blue Jay cannot help you if you do not let him.” The Asset said softly in Russian as Anthony tried to pick up a large book without help, one that he would be impossible to pick up at his age. Anthony whined quietly in the back of his throat as he continued to be unsuccessful. “While you fail to pick up your book, Blue Jay is going to make dinner. After dinner, Blue Jay is going to wash you and we are going to sleep until the morning. Do you understand, Anthony?” Anthony huffed quietly and nodded. He seemed to understand words, but still had no spoken yet; but that didn’t bother the Asset very much.

 

Anthony’s small hands gripped the edges of the book as the Asset moved around the kitchen area preparing dinner. “ голубая сойка.” Anthony suddenly spoke. 

 

The Asset whipped his head around, “Зайчонок ?” he asked despite himself. 

 

“Помоги мне?” Anthony asked quietly. The Asset smiled slightly and walked over to Anthony and picked him up, placing him comfortably on the bed. Then he walked over to the book and picked it up, before turning around and placing it in front of Anthony on the blanket. As if on instinct, the Asset moved his hand into Anthony’s hair and ruffled it. The young child giggled and opened up the book. The Asset went back to making dinner, the memory of Anthony’s soft hair at the forefront of his mind.

 

After that, Anthony spoke much more. He was also quickly learning how to walk and started recognizing the difference between the Russian, English, and French books. His words were a strange mix of those languages, but primarily Russian and always with the Russian accent. He was copying the Asset in his speech patterns as well, his pacing was often slow and precise, but sped up and became more jumbled as he got excited. That little habit was all his own.

 

Anthony had been with the Asset for more than a year, likely almost 2 years old, when they were taken away from each other for the first time. The Asset was reading a book about mechanics to Anthony on the bed when the door opened again. Immediately the Asset jumped into defensive positions and Anthony ducked behind him, just like they had practiced.

 

His handler walked in with two other men, one a soldier and one who looked like a businessman. The businessman had a receding hairline and a smile that reminded the Asset of a hyena, one of the animals that he and Anthony had read about. The Asset didn’t trust him.

 

His handler spoke in English, “This is Obadiah Stane. He has authorization to take the child out of this room.” The Asset nodded. Obadiah made his way towards Anthony, a smug smile on his face. 

 

“Anthony.” The greasy man said as greeting. 

 

Anthony looked to the Asset, “Помоги мне?” Obadiah’s face quickly morphed from smug to furious as he whipped his head to look at the Asset.

 

“The kid only speaks Russian?” He growled. The Asset was thoroughly unimpressed by what was likely supposed to be a threatening tone.

 

Anthony looked to the Asset, confused. For the past month, they had been alternating what languages they spoke from day to day so that Anthony could learn the difference. Today was a Russian day. “English, Anthony.” The Asset said calmly. 

 

Anthony nodded firmly. “Okay, Blue Jay.” Anthony responded, the Russian accent only slightly peeking out. The tension drained from the room as Obadiah let out a sigh. 

 

“Outside of this room, only ever speak English, you got that?” Anthony nodded his head firmly.

 

Obadiah grabbed Anthony firmly by the arm and started dragging him out of the room. Both Anthony and the Asset tensed, but neither could do anything. “You’re going to be spending time with me and your dad for a bit. Don’t worry, you’re not going to be let out long. Just long enough for the public to know you still exist.”

 

Soon Obadiah, Anthony, and the other soldier were gone from view. His handler turned to the Asset and started speaking the Words again. “Ready to comply.” The Asset said, internally surprised that he could still remember Anthony so clearly even through the fog that always seemed to form over his mind. 

 

He didn’t let his thoughts show. “We have a mission for you.”

 

The mission lasted two months, then his mind was wiped and he spent another month in cryo. The Asset didn’t forget about Anthony once. When they were preparing to wipe his mind, the Asset had shoved all thoughts of Anthony deep into his mind, where he hoped that they would be untouched. It worked, because when he stepped out of cryo, the memories washed over him, making him stumble the slightest bit. That went unnoticed.

 

They briefed him on Anthony, under the assumption that the Asset didn’t remember him. Anthony was the son of a higher up, he was to learn and be taught. He was two years old. It didn’t tell him that he had adorable brown eyes, that he didn’t like eating his vegetables but never did complain out loud, didn’t even tell him that Anthony know more than one language. The Asset ached to see Anthony like he had never ached for anything before.

 

When the Asset entered the room again and saw Anthony, he felt like crying. He had to keep his eyes off of him to make sure he didn’t. “This is Anthony. Remember your mission.” His handler barked in Russian, before turning and leaving. The Asset waited 30 seconds after the door had closed to look at Anthony. He has bigger, slightly thinner, his once long hair was now chopped short. Anthony also looked to be curled into himself, making him look much smaller than he was.

 

“Помоги мне?” Anthony asked cautiously. The Asset’s eyes softened and he raced over to hug Anthony. Suddenly, for the first time that the Asset could remember, Anthony started crying. He had never cried in the almost year they were together.

 

“What’s wrong, Bunny?” The Asset asked in soft Russian tones, running his hands through the child’s hair.

 

“Remember.” The Asset froze. They must have told Anthony that the Asset wouldn’t remember him.

 

“I could never forget you, Bunny. Now let’s get some food in you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> голубая сойка - blue jay  
> Зайчонок - bunny (pet name form)  
> Помоги мне? - help me?


	3. Blue Jay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter has some child abuse, not explicit, but the injuries are talked about.

Anthony surprised him a couple days later by asked for water in Japanese. A language that the Asset didn’t know the child knew. Anthony said that his mother would teach him when she was lucid and around. He didn’t know much, but that didn’t matter. Part of the Asset knew that a two year old who could speak 4 languages was basically unheard of. An even bigger part of him was proud of Anthony. The Asset didn’t hesitate in putting Japanese into their rotation.

 

Writing utensils and paper were now a part of the supplies that they had, in addition to many new books. Some of the old books had been taken away, but Anthony was too interested in the new ones to care much. His handler told him to teach Anthony how to read and write within the next year.

 

The Asset was not worried, Anthony was a truly extraordinary child, he would be up to the task and was sure to exceed it. His handlers had emphasized that Anthony was to learn how to read and write English, but the Asset had worked with all four languages in Anthony’s impressive repertoire.

 

223 days after Anthony and the Asset had been reunited, Anthony asked him a question that he didn’t know how to answer. “Blue Jay, how come my parents leave me?” The Asset froze at the stove where he was cooking beans.

 

“They want to protect you.” 

 

Anthony looked thoughtful, “Then why does he hit me?” This time the Asset tensed and spun around, looking at Anthony, who stared back at him with wide and innocent eyes.

 

“He what?” The Asset what sharply, already imagining how he would kill the man who had hurt his sweet bunny.

 

“Didn’t like Russian. Slapped me when I spoke it.” Anthony mumbled, looking down at his hands. The Asset turned off the stove and crouched in front of Anthony, who had previously been reading.

 

“Look at me, Bunny.” He said, putting a finger under the boys chin and moved it so he was looking at him. “There you are, baby.” The young boy giggled and the Assut smiled ruefully, “I don’t know why they leave you here. I don’t know why they chose me to take care of you, but they did. But you know what, because of them you have me, you understand?”

 

Anthony nodded, eyes glassy and full of emotion. “I will never leave you, Bunny. Even when we’re apart I will never leave you. I promise.” Anthony threw himself at the Asset, hugging him tightly around the waist. The Asset didn’t hesitate in hugging the boy back, burying his nose in the soft curls atop his head.

 

“Love you Blue Jay.” Anthony whispered. 

 

“I love you too, Bunny.” Soon after, the Asset started teaching Anthony how to fight.

 

Over the next few years, Anthony became a curious and intelligent child. By the time he was four years old he could read, write, and speak four languages fluently. After one of their longer times separated, he told the Asset about how he made a circuit board and how his father made him tour all over the country with it, acting proud in the public but berating him and calling him a freak and a failure in private.

 

When Anthony was 5 and a half, he came back with cuts and scars on his body. Sometimes the Asset would be led to the room and told to wait for Anthony and other times Anthony would already be there. When Anthony came into the room and the Asset saw his face, he had to actively force himself from lashing out, though that wouldn’t have been the first time. Once his handler had reminded him of his mission and left the room, the Asset gathered Anthony in his arms to look over him.

 

There was a relatively fresh cut on the left side of his face, about two inches long stretching diagonally towards his nose. Anthony whimpered when the Asset poked at it.

 

“Anthony, who did this to you?” The Asset said as softly as he could muster in French. 

 

“Dad.” Anthony answered simply. The Asset growled and Anthony gripped his shirt harder. 

 

“Do you think you could show me what else he did?” Anthony hesitated, but let go of the Assets shirt and took a step back.

 

Anthony slowly tugged off his shirt, showing off the colourful skin underneath. His torso and much of his arms were covered in bruises, both new and healing. The Asset clenched his fist so hard that mechanical whirring filled the room for a second. Then, Anthony put both of his hands forwards, palm facing up, showing the Asset the red and blistering skin that was once soft and milky. His palms had been badly burned and, if the Asset looked closer, cut up as well.

 

The Asset carefully picked Anthony up and walked over to the kitchen area, before gently placing him on the counter. Anthony was close to tears at this point. 

 

“It’s okay, Bunny. You’re okay.” Anthony’s hiccuping breaths were making the Asset’s heart hurt. He started washing the young boys wounds and bandaging them with the supplies that were under the sink. All the while, mumbling soft reassurances to Anthony who’s breaths were slowing to a less anxious rhythm. 

 

After his hands were wrapped and his cuts were cleaned and covered, the Asset picked Anthony up and moved him to the bed. “Sleep, Bunny.”

 

It had been 7 months since the Asset had last seen Anthony and he was getting more and more restless every day. He was doing noticeably well on missions, hoping that doing well would mean seeing Anthony sooner. They hadn’t even brought him back to the base with the room yet. He had just finished a month long mission in Hungary when he was finally brought back to the bunker. He figured they were somewhere in North Eastern United States. Part of him hoped it was New York, but he didn’t understand why he was hoping for that.

 

Anthony was already in the room when he returned. He knew better than to reach out for the Asset before his handlers left, but the Asset could feel him struggling. Something bad must have happened. Anthony would probably be close to seven years old at this point, but the Asset didn’t know Anthony’s exact birthday. They rarely talked about life outside of the room when they could avoid it. In the back of his mind, he recognized that his handler had informed him of his mission and was leaving. The Asset waited his usual 30 seconds before rushing over to Anthony.

 

Anthony grasped onto the Asset’s shirt when he hugged him, his breath fast and stuttering. “What happened, Bunny?” The Asset asked in Japanese, picking up in their schedule where they left off. 

 

Anthony didn’t seem to be able to answer, so the Asset just ran his finger through the child’s soft curls. Anthony wasn’t crying, he rarely did, but he often came close when they were reunited. After a few minutes, Anthony’s breathing had calmed substantially. 

 

“I made an engine.” Anthony finally spoke. The warm feeling of pride filled the Asset’s chest. Dread slowly creeped over him as well.

 

Anthony’s father hated when he made things like that. He would always act like he was so proud of his genius child in public but would cruelly admonish him and call him a freak in private. He also got physical with Anthony often. The Asset could also smell the alcohol on the child when they were reunited.

 

“He didn’t like that, did he?” The Asset asked softly. Anthony shook his head near-violently. “Oh, Bunny. It’s okay. You’re not a freak. You’re so smart, so wonderful. Look at me, Anthony.” Chestnut eyes met soft blue. “You are perfect Anthony, never forget that.”

 

The Asset wondered what his relationship with Anthony could be classified as. The Asset didn’t feel like a father, or a parent. Anthony was a child, but he wasn’t the Asset’s child. The Asset once asked Anthony what he thought. “You’re not my dad, you’re just Blue Jay.” He was just Blue Jay, wasn’t he? He and Anthony were intrinsically connected, for what they didn’t know.

 

Anthony liked learning how to fight. He liked using his size to his advantage and he was damn good at it too. Of course he was, he was being trained by the Asset. Fighting is one of the only things the Asset can even remember. For the things that they couldn’t do inside the room, the Asset would tell Anthony about.

 

The Asset was never given a gun in the room, but Anthony knew everything there was to know about them. There was almost never a moment where the Asset didn’t have a weapon on him, so Anthony had a lot of fun with the knives. He was good at throwing them and could even keep up with the Asset when fighting with them.

 

What Anthony loved the most was hand to hand. He skipped and jumped around the Asset, his stature making him much quicker and much more agile than the bulkier man. He blocked hit after hit that the Asset send at him, waiting for the perfect moment to strike back.

 

He was efficient and deadly, just like the Asset. Anthony made fighting seem more fun though, he laughed when he messed up when the Asset would have been punished before. He corrected his mistakes without hesitation and with an air of confidence. He was almost 9 now and was just as curious and excitable as he was when he was younger.

 

Nothing good ever lasts.


	4. I'm Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the separation.

If the Asset thought back, he would say it started when they were last reunited. Anthony would be about 11 years old at the time. He was highly trained and dangerous for a child; he had learned how to continue his training outside of their room, tipping off anyone he trained with so they wouldn’t talk. His family had the money to do so and didn’t even think to hide it from the child. He could shoot a gun and throw knives with masterful precision, he could figure out what someone was thinking just by their body language, he could take down almost anyone in a fight, and could spot a spy, liar, or assassin from a mile away. He was a… unique kid.

 

He came back looking at the Asset with a look of surprise and wonder that the Asset had never seen before. “What is it, Anthony?” The Asset asked as the sat on the bed together, the Asset reading and Anthony stracing the star and lines on the Asset’s arm. Anthony paused and tilted his head slightly, looking deeply into the Asset’s eyes.

 

“I think I know you you are.” Anthony responded. The air was sucked out of the room. 

 

“Know who I am?” The Asset asked, his voice as steady as he could make it. 

 

“Before. Before the arm and the missions and those people.”

 

The Asset blinked. He had rarely even let himself think about a time before this, before he was the Winter Soldier. “I didn’t know I was anyone… before.” The Asset said back slowly. 

 

Anthony nodded sympathetically. “Dad didn’t want me to see. He knows who you were too. But I saw a video of you, from the war. You had short hair and two arms, you were friends with Captain America!” 

 

Blond hair and blue eyes, bloody knuckles, and a boyish grin flitted across the Asset’s memories painfully. He shut his eyes tight and gripped his hair, this was too much. Suddenly small arms made their way around his frame and chocolate brown eyes filled his vision. Anthony was grounding him.

 

“You okay?” Anthony asked, concern written all over his face. The Asset had taught him a long time ago how to school his expressions to never show how he was really feeling and how to recognize when other were doing the same, but they didn’t often practice that around each other.

 

The Asset nodded shakily. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. I won’t talk about it again if you don’t want me to.” The Asset sighed as they relaxed into each others arms. They fell asleep in that position.

 

It ended as suddenly as it had began all those years ago. It didn’t even happen inside of the room. The room where Anthony had grown up and the Asset had felt human. They both left that room not knowing that it would be their last time in there. They didn’t get to say goodbye to the bed, still comfortable enough after all these years. The Asset never got around to cleaning the dishes, two plates, one bowl, and two glasses used for water.

 

Anthony never got the retrace the carving he made in the wood of the dining table, the carving that states that ‘ _ Anthony and Blue Jay were here’ _ . Because they had been. They had been there. Anthony thought of is more as a home than where he went when they were seperated, and it was the closest thing to a home that the Asset could remember.

 

They never really got to say goodbye.

 

Instead, it happened in New Jersey. ‘ _ Fucking New Jersey _ ’ the strange and dangerous part of the Asset’s brain said. They had been separated for 41 days and the Asset couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, or that something would be wrong. He had been sent to New Jersey for a mission, he was to trail his mission, take notes of his behaviors, lean all that he could about what he was doing, and then kill him. Hydra couldn't have Nicholas Fury running around anymore.

 

It was the 6th day of trailing his mission, Nicholas Fury hadn't fully realized that he was being followed, but was getting suspicious. Today, he seemed to be making his way towards somewhere outside of the city. The Asset loosely followed him, not wanting to tip him off even more of his presence.

 

After an hour of driving, Nicholas Fury arrived at what looked like a mansion or an estate. Part of the Asset wanted to marvel at the size, though he’s been to much more impressive places. Those strange feelings and emotions seemed to be happening more and more recently. The Asset had no explanation, nor did he mention it to his handlers. Having a distinct dislike for New Jersey wasn't important enough for them to know.

 

Nicholas Fury was greeted by a butler at the door. The butler looked to be a nice man, laugh lines mixed with stress lines on his face. He had a kind smile and even kinder eyes.

 

“Mister Fury, what an unexpected surprise.” The butler said, not sounding very surprised at all. 

 

“Jarvis, is he home?” Fury said gruffly. The butler, Jarvis, got a knowing look in his eyes. 

 

“He is in his workshop, would you like me to call for him?” Fury nodded firmly and followed Jarvis when he lead him into the estate. The Asset quickly found an entrance and entered as well. A few minutes later the Asset located Nicholas Fury and Jarvis. They were swiftly walking down one of the hallways, towards a wide open room.

 

Suddenly, one of the doors along the hallway flung open and a small blur shot out of the room.

 

_ Anthony _ .

 

“Jarvis!” Anthony yelled excitedly, his Russian accent almost not noticeable; almost. The Asset could feel his breath hitch violently in his chest. He had never seen Anthony outside of the room before, so seeing him while on a mission was more than surreal. Anthony stopped in his tracks when he saw Nicholas Fury, his stance changing to plant his feet and his eyes taking in every detail about the other man that he could. Pride filled the Asset’s chest because  _ he _ had been the one to teach Anthony that, and he had done it so subtly and quickly that nobody else had noticed.

 

“Young sir, this is Nicholas Fury, an associate of your father's.” Jarvis said, smiling at Anthony. Anthony upturned his head slightly more noticeably judging Fury. Fury’s eyebrows raised slightly. 

 

After a moment, Anthony stuck out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.” Anthony said slowly and carefully. 

 

“Nice to meet you too, kid.” Nicholas Fury responded, not quite looking at Anthony. The man obviously didn't know what to make of the child's seemingly curious expression. The Asset was confused. Nicholas Fury was an associate of Anthony father, who worked with Hydra. So why was he sent to kill him?

 

Jarvis and Nicholas Fury continued to make their way down the hall, leaving Anthony behind. Anthony stared at their retreating back suspiciously. Anthony didn’t know of Hydra’s existence from what the Asset knew, Anthony just thought that his father worked with a dangerous company that he was sent to stay with often. More often than not.

 

Hydra couldn’t afford a child knowing of their continued existence, especially a child that would have such an impact on the world in the future. The Asset’s supposed identity was also a well kept secret, one that Anthony has already figured out too. Maybe one day Anthony will save the Asset from his handlers, the pain, the missions…

 

The Asset snapped out of his child-like fantasies as Anthony closed the door to the room that he had just ran out of behind him. It was probably his room in this house. The Asset also realized that he had lost sight of his mission and the butler. The Asset cursed himself before freezing, the comme in his ear that was only used for emergency communication during his missions crackled to life for the first time that he could remember. Nothing good could come out the series of actions that lead the Asset to this point.

 

“Asset, where are you?” One of his handlers spat out, desperation teasing the edge of his tone. The Asset took a deep breath before he responded, controlling his tone. 

 

“I have followed Nicholas Fury to an estate in New Jersey where he is meeting up with an associate. How would you like me to proceed?” There was a pause and the Asset hoped desperately that they would allow him to stay, to finish the mission, to see Anthony outside of the room. The Asset held his breath as he waited for direction.

 

“Pull back.”

 

The Asset felt himself flinch slightly at those two words. He could try disobeying, but he might lose Anthony like that, or he could obey and never see Anthony again, as Hydra would likely see this as too close a call. The Asset didn’t know what to do, he was confused. He had spent what felt like his entire life obeying their orders and never doing what he wanted; he never knew what he did want either. He didn’t think he could want, was never allowed to be his own person, he was owned by Hydra and he hated it. Blue Jay just wanted to be with his Bunny, watch him grow up and watch him change the world.

 

“Why?” Blue Jay said, before he could stop himself. “Why should I have to? The mission is hardly compromised, why should I have to listen to what you tell me?” He froze after he had realized what he had just said. That what not what he should have said, that shouldn’t have happened, the Asset hadn’t shown any signs of insubordination in so long, but now, now he had questioned an order and talked back. This was not good, this was very not good. It was like the filter that he created over his words had broken just at the thought of losing Anthony, now he was really going to lose him.

 

Blue Jay ripped the communicator out of his ear before his handler could say anything and sprinted to the room Anthony was in. Strategically, the room was one of the safest in the house. It wasn’t against any of the outer walls, so it didn’t have any windows, and it was on the ground floor. Blue Jay ripped open the door, nearly taking it off its hinges in his desperation.

 

Anthony, who was sitting at a desk, jumped out of his seat and pulled a knife seemingly out of nowhere at the sudden entrance. He stopped what was sure to be an attack when he saw the intimidating man.

 

“Blue Jay?” Anthony asked breathlessly in his first language. Blue Jay strode over to Anthony and picked him up in a hug, squeezing him near painfully. “Blue Jay, what’s wrong? What are you doing here?” Anthony asked softly into the assassin’s neck. The man sighed and buried his face in Anthony’s curls, taking a deep breath before he answered. 

 

“Something’s happened, Bunny. I was supposed to do something and I didn’t. I said something that I shouldn’t have.” They were both quiet for a moment, but he knew that it wouldn’t be long until Hydra came to extract him. They still had many trackers on him.

 

“They’re taking you away, aren’t they?” Blue Jay sagged onto the floor, Anthony half in his lap and half on the floor as well. 

 

“I’m sorry Anthony, I’m so sorry.” The man said, feeling tears pricking at his eyes as he hugged the young boy impossibly closer. 

 

“It’s okay Blue Jay, you’ll always be with me, even if you’re not here. You promised me that and I’m promising you that.” Anthony was shaking slightly as his voice cracked over the words. Suddenly, Anthony’s hands were on Blue Jay's shoulders and he was being pushed back. “You are perfect Blue Jay. Someday I’ll save you, I’ll find you and save you from the people. I love you, Blue Jay.”

 

Anthony’s eyes were dark and misty, tears threatening to fall. Blue Jay could feel the same dampness in his own eyes. Anthony wiped his thumb under the man's eye as a tear fell, looking at him with amazement, as the Asset had never cried before. Blue Jay surged forward and landed a wet kiss on the temple of Anthony’s head. “I love you too, Bunny.”

 

That was the last time they saw each other for many, many years.


	5. Tony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tony stark is iron man, but who is he really?

Tony Stark had a lot of just  _ weird  _ idiosyncrasies. That much the media knew. It was common knowledge that Tony Stark didn’t like being handed things, that he never seemed to let anyone drive him anywhere, he arrived late to events or not at all, very few people were actually close enough to him to call him their friend, and that he was smart enough to ruin anyone in seconds. But those were just the ones that the media knew about. If you asked James Rhodes about Tony Stark’s idiosyncrasies, he would have different answers.

 

Tony Stark has crazy fast reflexes, Tony Stark knows how to fight and he’s damn good at it, Tony Stark knows so many languages that it’s hard to keep track of all of them, Tony Stark always knows when someone is lying to him, Tony Stark is always armed in some way, Tony Stark knows almost nothing about his father or mother, but can tell you the entire history Medieval France, and Tony Stark  _ hates  _ being called Anthony.

 

Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper have tried getting him to talk about how he knows how to fight, or why he rarely ever sits with a door or windows to his back, but he also has a talent for talking himself out of situations or questions without the other person even realizing that he’s doing it. Now, it was time for the Avengers to learn those seemingly unexplainable habits, starting with Natasha Romanoff.

 

Natasha Romanoff met Tony Stark as Natalie Rushman. Fury put her undercover to assess him for the Avengers Initiative six months after he had come out as Iron Man to the public. Their first meeting was… interesting. Coulson had warned her about Stark before they had met, but that didn’t really prepare her for the real thing. 

 

“Look, Natasha, Stark is… Stark is interesting. I’ve known him for six months and I still don’t have a very good read on him. Don’t go into this expecting anything, and try to forget everything the media has said about him.” Natasha had listened, but didn’t really take that to heart.

 

When Natalie met him face to face for the first time, he eyed her up with a look that could have been perceived as sexual, but actually seemed much more analytical. 

 

“Hello Miss… Rushman.” Stark said with a smirk, his tone of voice light and airy. 

 

“Mr. Stark.” Natalie replied with a practiced bashful smile and slightly sexual look. 

 

“Give ‘em a lesson.” Stark said over his shoulder as he exited the boxing ring to sign over his company to Pepper Potts. Only when Natalie had taken Happy down had she realized that Stark didn’t say give  _ her  _ a lesson. Huh.

 

Natalie really didn’t know what to make of Stark at Monaco. It was like he had a death wish or something. She also realized that he fought very well outside of the armor, which was more than a little unexpected. For some odd reason, she had expected him to be basically useless in a fight outside of the armor.

 

A little later, she accidentally caught a glimpse of the skin around his arc reactor, in all of its worrying glory. If she had looked up and caught Tony’s eye in the mirror she had seen the reactor through, she would know that nothing that he did was on accident.

 

Perhaps the most confusing affair would have been his birthday party. They were doing some of their weird flirty banter as Stark asked if he should cancel the party when Natalie handed him a drink. He put it up to his lips and seemingly took a drink, but he didn’t actually drink.

 

He acted drunk all night, sure, but Natalie hadn’t seen one time where he actually had a drink. When he showed her how to use the Iron Man gauntlet, he didn’t seem off-balance or unsteady, nor did his breath smell like anything but toothpaste. She could also see that he purposefully lost his fight against Rhodes. That’s how Natalie knew for sure that he was dying.

 

When Fury met him at the donut shop the next day, he acted realistically hungover. He groaned at the light, hunched over a lot, and acted like he’d rather be anywhere than where he currently was.

 

“Cut the act, Stark. I know you’re not actually hungover.” Fury snapped, causing Tony to freeze. 

 

“Thank god.” He muttered under his breath as he sat up and took off his sunglasses, running his gauntleted hand through his hair as best he could. “So what does the director of SHIELD need me for?” Tony asked, this time Nick and Natasha, who had been walking up to the two, froze.

 

“Oh, Natasha Romanoff, nice to see you. Or should I still be calling you Natalie Rushman? Go ahead and inject me with whatever you’ve got in your hand.” Natasha injected him with the compound that would slow the palladium poisoning and sat down next to Nick, who looked just as surprised as she did. “You’re so fired by the way.” He mentioned as he rubbed the injection point. He paused when he noticed the two of them just staring at him. “What? Do I have something on my face?” He asked, rubbing at a random point on his cheek.

 

“How do you know about my position in SHIELD?” Fury finally asked.

 

Stark’s brows raised, “Was I not supposed to? Fury, we met each other when I was 12.”

 

Fury glared at him, “Your father said he never told you about SHIELD.” 

 

Stark snorted and grinned sardonically, “Howard never told me anything, I can promise you that. Neither of us were around each other enough for that the happen. You think Coulson showing up in the middle of that mess six months ago and you guys keeping an eye on me since before Afghanistan wasn’t enough? Then you guys send Black Widow as a honeytrap? Let it never be said that you guys don’t have a sense of humour.”

 

“When did you figure it out?” Natasha said, finally finding her voice. 

 

“When I was staring at you and you didn’t automatically assume it was sexual. You taking Happy down was when I figured out you were a Black Widow though.”  _ A  _ Black Widow, not  _ the  _ Black Widow, but how could Tony Stark know about the Red Room and about the Black Widow legacy? 

 

“Anyways it’s not like it matters, I’m dying soon enough.” Stark said far too casually. “There’s no replacement for the palladium, I’ve tried every variation of every known element on the planet, nothing works.” Nick smirked.

 

Then, Tony Stark synthesized and rediscovered a new element in his basement. “The video was cute.” Stark later told Fury, who raised a brow at him. “The whole, ‘you’re my greatest creation’ thing. The editing was astounding too, anyone else would have thought it was real. Actual video was probably addressed to Captain America, am I right?” 

 

Nick was getting frustrated with the genius, “Is it so hard to believe that your dad didn’t make that for you? That he didn’t really love you?” 

 

Tony laughed, a bitter and cold laugh. “Yes, actually. It is.”

 

“You were in the video damn it!” Fury said, not quite yelling. 

 

“No, some poor kid who looks like me was edited into the video. I know because I wasn’t staying at that place when I was that age. Hell, I don’t think I ever saw my parents at all when I was three! It doesn’t matter though, I’m not dead and I won’t be for a little while longer. Anyways, what did you want from me?”

 

In the end the consensus was Iron Man recommended, Tony Stark unknown. Natasha didn’t feel like she could make an accurate assumption when she was only fed the information that Stark wanted her knowing, especially when he was dying at the time.

 

Then, New York happened. At that point, Natasha could tentatively say that she and Tony Stark were friends, but even then he was the most confusing person she had ever met. She had her suspicions that his playboy, alcoholic reputation was entirely constructed by the media and not at all true. She also had her theories about his strange behaviors and habits, but none of them seemed to stick or pan out very far. She had tried talking to him about it, but he always seemed to steer the conversation in a totally different direction or just straight up blew her off.

 

The way that Tony Stark interacted with Captain America was confusing. On one hand, he didn’t seem to care much for the man and would even get close to reproaching him, on another he would often seem to realize something and would act somehow remorseful? Like he felt terrible for the man and as if he knew something that the others didn’t. Which may as well be true. 

 

“Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off and what are you?” Steve spat at Tony during one of his times of teasing him.

 

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” Tony shot back just as quickly. 

 

“Ehh.” Natasha said out loud, moving her hand back and forth to show her doubt about that statement. Most of the others in the room looked confused at that, some probably thought that she was insulting Tony, but Tony just looked amused and smirked a little. 

 

“Now now, Natalie. I have a reputation.” Tony said quietly. 

 

“I know guys who are none of that worth 10 of you.” Rogers said a moment later, making Tony’s face go carefully blank. “I’ve seen the footage, the only thing you really fight for is yourself. You’re not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire to let the other guy crawl over you.”

 

“I think I would just cut the wire.” Stark said, his face still holding no expression. Steve got a look on his face that was almost cruel. 

 

“Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.” Stark squinted at Rogers, his eyebrow quirked slightly. 

 

“A hero? Like you? You’re a laboratory experiment Rogers, everything special about you came out of a bottle.” Steve straightened his back, towering over Tony, who looked more determined than threatened. 

 

“Put on the suit, let’s go a few rounds.” 

 

Now, Tony fully smirked, a dangerous glint in his eye, “I don’t need the suit to take you down Rogers, trust me on that.” And for some reason, everyone in the room believed him.

 

After New York, Tony invited the whole team to live with him in the tower. Some were more hesitant to accept the offer than others, but Natasha and Bruce took him up on it immediately, and wherever Natasha went, Clint went. Steve moved in because he thought it would good to be with the team whenever a threat would arise instead of being scattered.

 

Only a month after the battle of New York, everyone, apart from Thor who was still on Asgard, had moved into the tower. Now that they were living with Tony, they got the opportunity to learn more about him.

 

The first thing that they had noticed was, despite reputation of being late and slacking off, Tony had the most scarily accurate bodily clock ever. He was always up at 6 am without fail. 

 

“How the hell do you wake up at 6 am every day? You were up with me until 2 playing Mario Kart!” Clint whined as he dragged himself into the kitchen at noon. 

 

“Call it habit.” Tony replied from the couch, where he was working on upgrades for Natasha’s widow bites on a tablet. 

 

“Where the hell do you pick up a habit at waking up at 6 am? College or some shit?” Clint asked as he drank coffee straight from his pot. After Tony had found him drinking his coffee from the pot that everyone used, be bought him his own. 

 

“Not college, somewhere else. It’s a long story. Natasha was looking for you by the way.” Tony said before Clint could ask anything else.

 

Tony still acted weird around Steve. Some of the time he would act friendly, tease him lightly and get teased in return. Every time they would get to a certain point of their tentative friendship, Tony would pull back and avoid talking or even looking at Steve for a week. It was confusing as all hell. 

 

“Tony?” Steve asked from the doorway to the common room. Tony had been sitting in his big comfortable chair on the opposite side of the room, far away from any doors or windows. 

 

“Yeah, Steve?” Tony responded, not looking up from whatever book he was reading.

 

“Could I talk to you for a minute?” This made Tony look up from the book. 

 

“Sure.” He responded shortly. Steve walked over to a chair that was near Tony’s own and pointed to it, asking if he could sit, and only sitting when Tony nodded.

 

“I wanted to apologize.” Steve finally said, surprising Tony. 

 

“What for?” Tony asked, looking almost suspicious. 

 

“For all of those things I said on the helicarrier. They were pretty nasty and I obviously know better now, but that doesn’t excuse what I said. You’re a good man, Tony.” Tony blinked at him, slowly registering the words.

 

“You don’t have to apologize for that, Steve. We both said some shitty things, I forgave you ages ago.”

 

“Then why do you push me away all the time? I think we’re getting close to being friends, but then you go a week without even looking at me.” Steve said, trying not to sound hurt. Tony sighed and put his book down. 

 

“Look Steve, it has nothing to do with you, really. It is 100% me and my guilt about things that I can’t fix or change. Things that have already happened.” Tony said vaguely. 

 

Steve tilted his head, “What are you talking about?” Tony rubbed his hands against his face. 

 

“It’s not that simple,” He said tiredly, “It’s a really fucking long story and not one that I particularly want to talk about.”

 

Steve nodded, trying to be as understanding as possible. “Okay, that’s alright. But if you ever can, or want to talk about it, you know where to find me.” Tony nodded back at him, still not making eye contact. As Steve was leaving the room, he decided to see what the safest place in the room was, as he seemed to do with a lot of the rooms, and-  _ oh _ . Tony had positioned his chair at the tactically safest point in the room. That could be an accident, of course, but maybe it wasn’t. He went to go talk to Natasha.

 

A little while later, Clint, Steve, and Natasha were sitting in the gym after a rigorous training session and talking. Somehow, the conversation had been steered towards their childhood. Very few people on the team had a nice childhood, so the conversation stayed light, only talking about safe subjects. 

 

“My first word was arrow.” Clint said, a smile plastered on his face. Steve looked impressed but Natasha just rolled her eyes, having heard that fact a million times. 

 

“You’re kidding, right?” Steve asked with a boyish smile.

 

“Nope, totally true.” Clint responded easily. 

 

“I took my first steps at 7 months” Natasha said easily. “And I think my first word was light.” 

 

Steve looked thoughtful, “Yours are both so interesting, I think my first word was probably mama.” Clint snorted and Natasha rolled her eyes good-naturedly. A moment later, Tony walked into the room, obviously looking for something. 

 

“Have you guys seen my water bottle?” He asked when he couldn’t seem to find it. Natasha tossed it to him and he caught it easily. “Thanks, Nat.”   
  


“Hey Tony, what were your first words?” Clint asked curiously. 

 

Tony didn’t even seem to think before he responded, “I have no idea.” That took the others for surprise.

 

“Seriously? Your parents didn’t mark it down or tell you or anything?” Clint asked, obviously not buying it. 

 

“Don’t think Howard or Maria were around for my first words, birdbrain.” Tony spoke carefully. “There’s only one person who would know what my first words were and god knows where he is.” Tony said quietly, so only Steve, who had enhanced hearing, could hear him. They never talked about it again after that.

 

When Thor returned from Asgard, he too moved into the tower without hesitation. Steve loved sparring with him, Clint loved playing video games with him, Bruce got along with him strangely well, Natasha loved braiding his hair and gossiping with him, and Tony loved teaching him about Earth tech; though he too often joined Natasha in the gossiping. In short, he got along well with everyone and it wasn’t long until he was smoothly slotted into their daily routine.

 

It had been less than a month since Thor had moved in when it happened. They all refused to call it an accident because nothing was damaged or anything, so they just called it an occurrence. The rest of the team had been sitting in the common room just talking when Tony walked in, partially distracted by whatever he was looking at on his phone. “Stark!” Thor spoke, much louder than was necessary. Tony didn’t even flinch. 

 

“Hey, Point Break.” He said, looking up at him and smiling. Suddenly, Thor gasped and grinned widely.

 

“You know what you look like, Tony?” Thor asked. Tony has made him stop calling him Anthony very early on. 

 

“What’s that?” 

 

Thor’s smile got even bigger. “You look like on of those small creatures I saw while walking in the park, what were they called?” Tony tilted his head, smiling easily at the God’s antics. “Bunny! You look like a bunny!” 

 

With such a simple comment, Tony Stark’s carefully constructed walls came crashing down, if just for a moment. Everyone was staring at him when he stumbled slightly bracing himself on the wall. The look on his face showed more emotion that any of them had seen from him before, raw fear and regret flashed across his eyes before the walls slammed back up just as quickly as they had gone.

 

“Do I, Thor? That’s not one I’ve heard before,” Tony said, moving through the kitchen with practiced ease, flicking out a pair of tinted sunglasses out of nowhere and swiftly placing them on his face. “Dunno, I don’t really see it, but to each their own I guess.” Tony grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before making his way back out of the room, not making eye contact with anyone as he left. 

 

“What the hell was that?” Clint yelled a moment later, once Tony was probably out of listening range.

 

“I hope that I didn’t offend Stark, are rabbits not positive figures?” Thor asked, looking very worried. 

 

“No, there’s nothing bad about rabbits. I have no clue why he reacted that way.” Bruce assured Thor.

 

“Tash, you’ve known Stark the longest, do you know what that was?” Clint asked, still looking very bewildered. Natasha and Steve both looked thoughtful. 

 

“I may know him the longest out of any of us, but I still don’t think I know him well. If we want to know what that was, out best bet is talking to Rhodes or Potts. Unless...”

 

“JARVIS, do you know what that was?” Natasha inquired, staring at the ceiling. 

 

It was silent for a moment, “I apologize, I do not know why sir reacted like that.” Brows were raised at that response. 

 

“You don’t know, or you can’t tell us?” Bruce asked. It was quiet for a moment before JARVIS responded.

 

“I truly do not know. There are many things that sir keeps secret, even from me.”


	6. language

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what's tony's first language?

Fuck magic. That was the general consensus in the tower. After the battle of New York, a lot more magic users were coming out of the woodworks and causing trouble. That only increased with the arrival of Thor. While Loki was proven innocent on Asgard due to extreme brainwashing, he was still the God of Mischief and loved causing trouble. Now that he wasn’t trying to take over Earth, he enjoyed just trying to inconvenience the Avengers as much and as often as possible. There was even a special alarm that went off when Loki was out stirring up the pot. So when it went off in the middle of their Tuesday afternoon, nobody was happy.

 

It wasn’t really a battle, Loki wasn’t really destroying anything or doing any damage to the team, he was just trying to get them all still so he could talk. Finally, he got tired of their games and put out a spell freezing all of them where they were standing. “See that wasn’t too hard, now was it?” Loki said, smirking like the cat that caught the canary. 

 

Steve almost growled, “We don’t want to play any of your games, Loki.”

 

Loki pouted patronizingly, “Now that isn’t really up to you. I get ever so bored when there’s nothing to do.”

 

Loki stared at the lot of them contemplatively. “Now you’re a diverse lot, aren’t you? We all know that communication is the key to great teamwork and success, so I wonder. What would happen if communication just got quite a bit harder for all of you? Well, let’s find out.” With a wave of his hand, he was gone, the Avengers unfrozen and the minimal damage to the street around them fixed. 

 

“Guys? What just happened?” Bruce asked into the commes from back at the tower. Hulk wasn’t called in when Loki was around, as he really wasn’t dangerous enough for them to need him.

 

When Thor tried to respond, it was in a language that none of them recognized. It sounded vaguely Scandinavian, Nordic, but it was unlike any language spoken on Earth. Thor himself looked shocked that he had spoken it, and tried to say something else, yielding the same results of a different language. Steve tried to speak, but instead of English, he was speaking  _ Gaelic _ .

 

“What’s going on?” Bruce asked again, sounding even more confused than before.

 

Clint tried to respond, but not a word came out of his mouth, instead his hands started moving swiftly as he started signing what he was obviously about to speak. His eyes snapped to Natasha’s, but when she lifted her hands to start signing back to Clint, her hands froze where they were and she was suddenly speaking Russian. Everyone looked around to each other, bewildered at the turn of events.

 

“Tony, what’s happening?” Everyone turned to Tony, expecting him to start talking, but he just shook his head, looking slightly panicked. In just a second, he was gone, flying back to the tower as he left the others behind.

 

When they finally got back to the tower, they found that Tony had locked himself in his lab, refusing to let anyone in even with their override codes. They all gathered in the common room.

 

“I think I know what this is.” Bruce said when everyone else had entered. “You don’t have to speak, you can just nod your heads or shake them, but are you all only capable speaking your first language?” Shoulders sagged as everyone finally realized what was going on, and everyone nodded.

 

“But then what’s going on with Tony?” Steve asked, earning him confused stares. “Tony.” Steve said simply, as that’s not a word that would be different in either language.

 

“Ah, well I’m not so sure about that. I assumed that Tony’s first language was English, but with the way that he’s reacting, I’m not so sure…” Before anyone else could speak, JARVIS piped up. 

 

“I believe that it would be beneficial to call Colonel Rhodes in this situation.” 

 

Bruce furrowed his brow, “Do you know what Tony’s first language is, JARVIS?” JARVIS made a noise that would be akin to a hum. 

 

“I did not prior to today, and he has asked me not to divulge that information.” Bruce nodded.

 

“Okay, can you call Rhodes for me?”

 

“Rhodes speaking.” Rhodey said when he picked up the call. 

 

“Colonel Rhodes, this is Bruce Banner.”

 

Rhodes made a surprised noise, “Dr. Banner, this is a surprise. How can I help you?” Bruce stood up from his seat and started pacing, as he usually did when he was on the phone. 

 

“Well, we’ve run into a little issue. Loki cast a spell on the rest of the Avengers and now they can only speak their first language, so I-” 

 

Rhodes cut him off, “Holy shit, what is it?” He asked excitedly, breaking the sense of professionalism. 

 

“I’m sorry?” Bruce asked politely. 

 

“What’s Tony’s first language? I’ve been trying to figure this shit out for years and he won’t tell me.”

 

“That’s the problem, he’s locked himself up in his lab, so we don’t know. What do you mean you’ve been trying to figure this out for years?” Bruce asked, confusion growing steadily. 

 

“We were roommates in college, and even with his insane habit of getting up at 6 on the dot every day, he still got tired a lot. When he was really tired he would ramble in different languages and talked about schedules and rotations for his languages; talked about birds a lot too.”

 

Bruce cocked his head, “Languages? As in multiple?” 

 

Rhodes scoffed, “Yeah. Tones speaks a whole bunch of languages. I think the term is a hyperpolyglot. He can pick up a new language in a day if he wanted, I’ve seen him do it too. He picked up sign language in an hour when he found out a deaf kid transferred into one of our classes. But he would never tell me what his first language is. Sometimes I think that he doesn’t even know.” The last sentence was said quietly, sadly.

 

“Anyway, I say that you fake an emergency, make him come running up, and I’m sure he’ll say something. Have J send me the video, I want to know what it is.”

 

After Rhodes hung up, that started planning on how to get Tony up here. It took much longer than it usually would, because this time it was only Bruce pitching ideas and the others either nodding along or shaking their heads.

 

In the end, they decided to have JARVIS tell Tony that there had been an accident in the common room involving arrows, electricity, and some peanut butter and that he should get there right now,  _ yes right now.  _ JARVIS, surprisingly, went along with the plan without fuss, saying that it wouldn’t harm Tony, and maybe implying that he might just be a little curious too.

 

They all got into position to make it look like there had indeed been an accident and that they weren’t just sitting around. Clint had put a peanut butter covered arrow through the wall, Steve stood in the kitchen doorway with his hands on his hips, Natasha just sat on the couch watching them, Thor stood near Clint and started laughing loudly, and Bruce stood by Thor to get him to ‘calm down’. Then, JARVIS notified Tony.

 

In just a minute Tony can running through the door and surveyed the situation quickly. “What the hell are you doing? Why is there an arrow through my wall? Why is there peanut butter on my 80 inch TV screen?!” Tony yelled in rapid fire  _ Russian _ . Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Tony is shock. He looked confused for a moment before his eyes widened and he slammed both of his hands to his mouth. 

 

“You’re first language is Russian?” Bruce yelled out first, surprising everyone. Tony glared at him, but it was less heated and more resigned. 

 

“I didn’t know that either of your parents spoke Russian.” Bruce said as an afterthought. 

 

“They didn’t.” Tony spat out. Those who understood Russian in the room, Natasha and Clint, looked shocked.

 

“What do you mean you’re parents didn’t speak Russian?” Natasha asked. 

 

“I mean that neither of my parents spoke Russian, what else is there to glean from that statement?” Tony said bitterly. 

 

“How-?” 

 

Tony cut Natasha off again. “It doesn’t matter and I’m not talking about it anyways. I’m sure the spell will wear off in a day like they usually do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to be doing.” Tony said as he strode out of the room, “And clean up that damn peanut butter!”

 

Tony was right in saying that the spell would wear off in a day, so a day later they gathered again so Natasha and Clint could tell them exactly what Tony had said. “His parents didn’t speak Russian? Maybe it was a butler or someone like that who spoke Russian then.” Steve said, looking highly confused. 

 

“My human counterpart, who worked for the late Howard Stark did not speak Russian. From what I know, he took care of sir when his parents didn’t.” 

 

Natasha hummed, “From what you know. I think there’s more to this story than we think.”


	7. The Winter Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HYDRA gets exposed, Steve tells the truth.

A few months later, Steve and Natasha moved to DC at Fury’s request. They were only going to stay there for a few months though, because Fury only needed them until Project Insight was up and off the ground. A project that Tony  _ totally _ didn’t know about and  _ totally _ approved of. He was very vocal with his dislike of the project when he talked to Fury about it, saying that it would be too easy for their enemies to take advantage of it and that it was frankly immoral. Fury ignored him and said that Tony didn’t know the full story.

 

Then Fury was pronounced killed in action. Everyone back at the tower was freaking out, they didn’t know what to do now that Fury was apparently gone. Tony tried to calm their worries, saying that there was probably more to it than just what they were being told, and that SHIELD was always keeping secrets. That calmed them for a while, until Steve was pronounced a criminal. Now even Tony was freaking out a bit, but he still tried to assure them that there had to be more to this than they thought.

 

The inhabitants of the tower were all in the common room, each of them were trying to distract themselves in whatever way they could. Bruce was working on unsolvable math problems to keep his mind occupied, Thor and Clint had taken to playing video games and violently killing the enemies on screen, and Tony was updating his teammates tech on his tablet. 

 

“Sir,” JARVIS suddenly piped up. Bruce looked up from his screen, Clint paused the game, and Tony stopped what he was doing. 

 

“Yeah, J?” He asked tentatively. 

 

“Protocol Blue Jay has a hit.” Everyone turned to look at Tony. None of them have heard of Protocol Blue Jay before, and they were surprised to see that all of the blood had drained out of Tony’s face.

 

“What?” Tony asked croakily. 

 

“Video surveillance on a highway in Washington DC has picked something up.” JARVIS clarified. 

 

Tony leaped off of the couch, “Pull it up on my monitors in my lab, nobody is allowed in, deflect all of my calls, I don’t want to be interrupted unless the world is ending.” Tony sped out of the room, not even looking at the others as he left. 

 

“What’s Protocol Blue Jay?” Clint asked when Tony was gone. Thor shrugged and Bruce didn’t answer.

 

“What do you mean we’re not needed? Fury, you had to fake your death and you just found out that Hydra has been around this entire time, you need us!” Tony yelled when Fury had called him, saying to stay out of what was going on. 

 

“Stark, you’ll draw more attention to this than is needed, Rogers and Romanoff can handle it.” 

 

Tony huffed, “What about the tech side of this, nobody in SHIELD is as good as me when it comes to that, Hydra or not.” 

 

Fury interrupted him, “You are not needed, so stay out of this or else.”

 

Tony stayed out of it, mostly. He didn’t fly to DC, no matter how desperately he wanted to. He just waited until Natasha dumped the files and took over damage control. He set JARVIS to cover it when he finally did fly down to visit Steve in the hospital. 

 

“How you feeling, Steve?” Tony asked when he brought in his shield after fishing it out of the river. 

 

“Been better.” Steve replied sadly. 

 

“I met Sam, he’s pretty cute.” Tony said in a teasing tone, to which Steve blushed violently and the heart rate monitor indicated a sudden increase. “I’m just messing with you.” Tony said quietly.

 

They sat in silence for a minute. “It was Bucky. The Winter Soldier, it was Bucky.” Steve said quietly. 

 

“Yeah, I know.” Tony responded, pretending the lump in his throat didn’t feel like it was choking him. 

 

“God, they tortured him and brainwashed him for 70 years, Tony. I can’t even imagine…” Neither spoke for a long time after that. “Tony, there’s something I should tell you.” Steve finally managed to speak. Tony looked at him, indicating for him to continue. “We think, and we’re not sure, but we think the Winter Soldier may have killed your parents.”

 

Tony didn’t know how to respond to that. He truly didn’t know what to say or do, because  _ of course _ he had. Blue Jay always said that he would, every time that Anthony had come back to the room with cuts and bruises and burns, Blue Jay would tell him that he would kill whoever was responsible for hurting his Bunny. The irony was hysterical, so Tony didn’t know what to do other than laugh. So that’s what he did, he laughed. He laughed and laughed until his ribs hurt and his arc reactor was screaming at him to stop. Steve was surely looking at him like he was insane, but Tony couldn’t find it in himself to care.

 

“I’m sorry, it’s just- everything makes sense now. The car crash story never sat right with me, police reports stated that Howard was drunk, but I was certain that he hadn’t had anything to drink that night. Of course Hydra killed him, he was making weapons for the government, for people to defend themselves with. I’m just surprised they haven’t killed me too.” Tony explained, only lying where he needed to.

 

Blue Jay and his childhood was Anthony’s best kept secret, so there was no way that he was going to spill it now, even though he finally knows that Blue Jay isn’t dead. Steve nodded slowly at his explanation, still confused, but he left it at that.

 

One month later, Tony Stark gets kidnapped.


	8. Bucky Barnes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunt for Tony begins and the rest of the team is in for a big surprise.

Steve and Natasha had moved back to New York, bringing Sam Wilson along with them so they could continue the search for Bucky Barnes. Tony allowed them to use his resources to look for him, while doing his own searching by himself. Tony had taken to teasing Steve about his crush on Sam so that he would stop looking at Tony with pitying looks. Steve felt somehow guilty that Bucky had killed his parents, but Tony didn’t care about that, he just wanted his Blue Jay back. His parents never really cared about him anyways, that much was obvious with the sending him off to a Hydra base for the first decade of his life and everything.

 

Tony gets kidnapped the first time that everyone had taken a break in the past month. Anyone who could work with tech, that being Bruce, Tony, and Natasha, were tasked with cleaning up the data dump. Clint, Steve, Thor, and Sam were tasked with other missions and tracking down Bucky. 

 

Clint, in a fit of frustration due to reaching a dead end on a lead, called for a movie night so that everyone could relax. “If we keep burning the candle at both ends our work is going to be half-assed and then we won’t be able to help anyone. We need a break.” Had been his reasoning.

 

The fact that Tony hadn’t slept in 4 days should have been the first sign that he shouldn’t have gone out. Everyone had decided on ordering chinese food, but Tony wasn’t really feeling chinese that night, so he had elected to walk down to his favourite pizza place a couple blocks away to get his own food. The others had let him go at his insistence that he would be fine. 

 

“Alright, but if you’re not back in an hour, we’re starting the movie without you.” Clint had yelled teasingly as Tony left.

 

He wasn’t as aware of his surroundings as he should have been, if he had been eating and sleeping right then this never would have happened. Instead, Tony had been picked up off the street just minutes after he had left the tower, his instincts kicking in too slowly that he didn’t even have opportunity to fight back.

 

The little information that Tony could get before he passed out told him that is was most likely AIM that had nabbed him. Tony had been keeping an eye on AIM since they went under the grid after Killian. Killian, who had done the same that many others did, and underestimated Tony Stark. Killian, who was dead because of Pepper, who had elected to keep Extremis in her  _ just in case _ . Well shit.

 

“It’s been an hour, shouldn’t Tony be back by now?” Sam asked as he broke open his fortune cookie. 

 

“You’re a heathen for eating that before the rest of your food.” Clint said casually. 

 

“Sam’s right, Tony should be back by now.” Steve said, looking concerned. 

 

“JARVIS, where is Tony?” Bruce asked as he picked some of the peppers out of Thor’s food and put them in his own take-out carton. Thor didn't dislike them, Bruce just liked them more.

 

“I am unsure, Dr. Banner. Sir neglected to bring his phone with him.” Now even Clint looked concerned.

 

“Can you track him with traffic cameras?” Natasha inquired. It was quiet for a minute as JARVIS worked on that. 

 

“I’ve lost track of him, it appears that he’s gone missing.” JARVIS finally says, a trace of worry in his own synthetic voice. Everyone jumped out of their seats and turned to Steve for directions. 

 

“Falcon, Hawkeye, I want you on the streets. Ask if people have seen him, look for any trace of Tony Stark. Widow, Banner, I need you working with JARVIS on the internet, double check and triple check those cameras. See if anyone’s posted about seeing Tony Stark in the last hour. Thor, you and I will stay here and work on gathering intel and piecing this together. We’ll need to call Rhodes and Potts to see if they know anything either.”

 

When Pepper had been informed, she almost burned a hole in the door to the conference room where they had set everything up. “What do you know?” She asked, her eyes burning a dangerous orange. 

 

“Not much, Tony let the tower at 2137 and disappeared from surveillance at 2145. We don’t know who could have taken him or why. Nobody has taken responsibility for the kidnapping yet, and it hasn’t been publicized. We’re leaving that up to you if we do that or not.” Natasha said, pulling her up a chair.

 

“I’m under strict order to wait 24 hours after his disappearances to make anything public. I’ll start gathering a list of people and companies who it could be outside of Avengers enemies. When Tony’s been kidnapped in the past, excluding Afghanistan, he’s usually back within a day. Hopefully it’s like that this time.” Pepper said, already pulling up various files on her laptop. 

 

“When he’s been kidnapped in the past?” Steve askes from his own laptop. 

 

“He was the child of one of the most loved and hated men in America as well as the CEO for a major tech company and a superhero who’s been in the public eye his entire life. This isn’t his first rodeo, just his first in a while. They don’t usually make it this far, though.”

 

24 hours later, every TV station and every newspaper was covering the story and soon almost everyone in America knew that Tony Stark had gone missing. The team had narrowed the list of possible kidnappers down by quite a bit, but there were still too many possibilities. 

 

“Pepper, who do you think is the most likely candidate? Who would gain the most from kidnapping Tony Stark?” Bruce asked, hardly looking up from whatever he was doing. 

 

“AIM. The ones who were behind the Mandarin. It’s possible that they got wind that Tony figured out how to stabilize Extremis and kidnapped him in an attempt to get the information.” Pepper responded.

 

“Okay, then let’s put our resources into investigating AIM.” Steve ordered, causing everyone to shift focus. 

 

“I hate to interrupt, but Protocol Blue Jay has a hit.” JARVIS says, startling everyone in the room. 

 

“Protocol Blue Jay?” Steve asks, looking at Pepper, who looked just as confused as the rest of them. 

 

“Yes, Captain.” 

 

Clint lights up suddenly, “Wait, I’ve heard of that! The last time I heard that was during DC. Tony ran to his lab and didn’t let anyone come in or even interrupt him for ages. Something about something being caught on camera.”

 

“JARVIS, what is Protocol Blue Jay?” Pepper requested. 

 

“Protocol Blue Jay is my first and my longest running protocol to date. It’s purpose is to locate a single person based on physical details about that person using security cameras worldwide. It’s first and only hit before today was during the incident in Washington DC about a month ago.” Everyone looked to each other, confused. 

 

“Where’s the hit from today?” Steve finally asked. 

 

“Outside of the tower, I believe he is requesting access.” Everyone jumped to their feet. 

 

“Where?” 

 

JARVIS was quick with his response, “There is a secret back entrance to the tower that sir built, he is there. I should warn you, he is armed and seemingly agitated.”

 

Pepper and Bruce, as well as Thor, sat back down as the others raced to the elevator where JARVIS would bring them to the ground floor. “Do you think you could pull up video surveillance, JARVIS?” Bruce asked. He and Pepper gasped a second later when it was pulled up, but the others were too far away at that point for them to be warned of what was beyond the door. 

 

“This can’t be a coincident, right?” Clint more states than asks. Natasha shrugged in response, even more tense than before at this sudden intruder. Steve pulled the shield off of his back, readying himself for a fight as the elevator opened.

 

They slowly made their way towards the back door, Steve and Sam up front, with Clint and Natasha at their sides. “Open the door, JARVIS.” Steve whispered. The lock clicked audibly and, for a second, there was silence. Then the door slammed open and the Winter Soldier,  _ Bucky _ , murder walked into the tower. 

 

“Where is he?” Bucky hissed as he pointed two handguns at the four of them. 

 

“Bucky?” Steve whispered, Bucky’s eyes are on him in a second. 

 

“Steve.” He doesn’t lower his guns at all, but his eyes do soften minimally.

 

“Where is who?” Sam asked, looking as confused as the rest of them. 

 

Bucky glared at him venomously, “Anthony. Where is he?” Everyone looked taken aback. “Steve, I can’t lose him again, I can’t. Where is he? I have to find him, we have to-” Bucky starts breathing heavily, his aim wavering. 

 

“We’re working on that, Buck. We’re finding him.” 

 

Bucky dropped the guns completely, “I can help- I have to, I have to help. Stevie I can’t lose him again.” Steve lowers the shield and slowly walks up to Bucky.

 

“We’ll find him, I promise.” Steve whispered as he cautiously wraps his arms around Bucky, who immediately latches onto him and starts sobbing into his arms. 

 

“I can’t lose him, I can’t lose him, I can’t. I can’t lose my Bunny.” Bucky starts mumbling quietly between sobs. Everyone was looking at him, concerned for the status of the supersoldier. Steve himself had almost never seen Bucky break down like this before, the only thing close to this was when he thought Rebecca, his sister, was going to die one especially bad New York winter.

 

After a couple minutes of Bucky sobbing into Steve’s shoulder, he quiets down, wiping his eyes with his sleeves. “I can help you find him.” He finally says with a steely tone, no room for argument. 

 

“Okay, Buck. Let’s show you what we know so far.” Steve says, leading him towards the elevator. 

 

“I have certain protocols in place for when Blue Jay enters the building.” JARVIS said when they’re all in the elevator. 

 

Bucky jumped slightly, “Jarvis?” He asked, looking at the ceiling with a confused look on his face. 

 

“Ah, you must be referring to my namesake. I am an artificial intelligence that sir created, I run the tower.” Bucky nodded along, looking impressed.

 

“What protocols do you have in place, JARVIS?” Steve inquired. 

 

“Typically, sir would be told of his arrival if he didn’t already know, I would give Blue Jay the full blueprints to the tower, and he would receive the arm that sir made for him.” 

 

Clint sighs tiredly, “There’s a lot to unpack there.” Sam snorted and then winced when Steve elbowed him. 

 

“The blueprints that I’m sure many of you have seen are not the full blueprints, they’re missing many elements of the tower such as hidden rooms, and hidden entrance points. Blue Jay is to receive the full blueprints. As for the arm, sir has been keeping up maintenance and updating a prosthetic arm for as long as I have been around to give to Blue Jay.”

 

Steve turned to Bucky, “Are you Blue Jay?” Bucky nodded, still looking amazing at JARVIS. 

 

“You sound just like him.” Bucky said to the ceiling. 

 

“So I’m told.” JARVIS responds. 

 

“You knew human Jarvis?” Sam asked, still eyeing Bucky suspiciously. 

 

Bucky shook his head, “Not really, I only ever saw him once. At one of the estates that Howard owned.” Bucky spat the word Howard like it had personally offended him. “Worst day of my life.” He added as an afterthought.

 

“How do you… know Tony?” Clint asked hesitantly, earning him a black stare from Bucky. 

 

“He never told you.” Bucky stated simply, before sighing. “What do you know about his childhood?” When he didn’t even get a response, he sighed again. “I’m not going to tell you the story when it’s not mine to tell. Once we get Anthony back he can tell you.” 

 

Clint shuffled awkwardly, “He doesn’t like when people call him Anthony, you know.” 

 

Bucky sent him a sharp smirk, “He doesn’t like when other people call him Anthony.”

 

With Bucky’s help, their progress in finding Tony and even finding clues that Tony had left them got a lot faster. “If he gets a computer, he’s not going to send any of you a direct message, he knows that’s too risky. He’d leave breadcrumbs for us to find, minimal risk while still keeping the likelihood of being found high.” Bucky explained when they were talking through possibilities. 

 

“How do you know how he thinks?” Bruce asked, looking up from his screen. Bucky chuckled darkly but neglected to answer the question.

 

“If it comes down to escaping or gathering more intel, he’ll choose the intel route every time.”, “Defeating him in combat would be hard, especially for a bunch of AIM scientists who are trained with the bare minimum of combat. Give him a knife and he’ll be out of there before they even know what hit them.”, “I doubt the password to his files are in English, that’s his least favourite language. Try Russian or Japanese.”, “No, Anthony would know better than to leave without any kind of tracker on him, we just have to find it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he carved himself open and put one in.”

 

Pepper gasped suddenly, “JARVIS, can you pull up the schematics for the arc reactor?” Bucky looked at her, his eyes lighting up with realization to what she meant. 

 

“I’m sorry, Ms. Potts, but you don’t have the clearance to do that.” Almost everyone in the room deflated at that. 

 

“JARVIS, can you pull them up for me?” Bucky requested. 

 

There was a beat of silence, “You  _ do  _ have authority to view the schematics.” JARVIS responded, he himself sounding surprised. A hologram of the arc reactor suddenly popped up in the middle of the table and Bucky and Bruce crowded around it instantly.

 

After a few minutes of looking, “There!” Bucky whisper-yelled, pointing to an area to the left of the main reactor area, near the casing. Bruce zoomed into the area to find a small chip, a tracker. If they weren’t looking for that specifically, they never would have found it. 

 

“I didn’t know that was there.” JARVIS stated, sounding thoroughly shocked. 

 

“Now that you do, do you think that you could track it?” Bucky asked hopefully. 

 

“I could certainly try.” JARIS assures, leaving the rest of them to wallow in a tense silence while JARVIS works on locating the tracker.

 

“I knew that Tony was a secretive person, but this is crazy.” Clint muttered, sitting down for the first time in who knows how long. Bucky raised a brow at him, a smirk playing at the edge of his lips. 

 

“Can you just- can you explain anything about this right now?” Steve asked, looking just as confused as he sounded. 

 

Bucky tilted his head and hummed, “I don’t want to tell you anything that Anthony wouldn’t want you knowing, if he’s kept everything a secret then I don’t know what I can say.” Sam and Clint both groaned. 

 

“Literally anything would be good to know at this point.” Sam complained.

 

“What do you know about him? About when he was younger?” Bucky asked hesitantly. The others looked at each other curiously. 

 

“Well,” Natasha started, “His first language is Russian, that we only found out recently, he doesn't know what his first words were, and his parents weren't around much. That's about it.” Bucky hummed and looks contemplative and sad at the same time.

 

“His first words were  голубая сойка.” Bucky said quietly. Everyone looked up at him, surprised that he knew that. 

 

“What does that mean?” Sam asked, as only three of the people in the room knew Russian. 

 

“Blue Jay.” Natasha responded. Bucky was staring at the TV where the news was playing a segment on Tony. His eyes softened as a picture of Tony filled the screen. Nobody knew what to say, thankfully, they didn't have to say anything.

 

“I believe I have located sir.” JARVIS said, everyone jumping to their feet a moment later. 

 

“The tracker?” Bruce asked, fiddling with the hem of his sweater. 

 

“Yes and no. The tracker notified me of his location, but I have also intercepted a message from him with coordinates.” Bucky's grin was sharp and full of pride. 

 

“Well what are we waiting for? Avengers, assemble.”

 

Surprisingly, they were holding Tony in Maine, still very close to New York. For a bunch of scientists and supposed geniuses, AIM wasn't very smart. It was silent when they landed in the forested area less than a mile from the base. Nobody had spoken on the way there aside from Natasha who updated them every few minutes on how far away they were. Bruce had stayed at the tower, on the off chance that they would need medical and knowing that the Hulk wasn't needed with the Winter Soldier on a warpath. Bucky looked just about ready to snap when they climbed out of the quinjet. His jaw was tense and he carried himself in his signature Winter Soldier murder strut.

 

After a few minutes of hasty walking, the building was in sight. It basically looked like a low-budget Stark building. Steve turned to address the others when suddenly a rumbling boom echoed out from the base. Alarms started going off and AIM scientists and employees started running around frantically. 

 

“He must have known when we'd get here.” Clint whispered in realization. 

 

“He’s bat-shit.” Sam whispered in response, earning a short from Clint and an elbow to the ribs from Natasha.

 

“Are we going to go pick him up or what?” Bucky growled, casing everyone to come back to attention. 

 

“Let's just get him out of there, don't aim to kill but make sure that they won't get up any time soon.” Steve instructed. Everyone moved a moment later, heading towards the base where the sounds of explosions were becoming more frequent. They spread out around the surprisingly small base, most of it was likely underground, judging by the sounds they were hearing. Before the group had even spread themselves around the perimeter of the building, one of the doors flung open and Tony came rushing out.

 

He had obviously seen better days, he was bleeding from multiple places all over his body and was covered in dirt and grim, but he had a huge smile on his face and was laughing hysterically. 

 

He noticed Steve a moment later, “Hey, Cap! Right on time! They tried to force me to make weapons, can you believe it?” Steve smiled back at him boyishly a little confused. Bucky moved closer to Steve and Tony’s eyes snapped to him.

 

His smile faltered and his eyes widened, “Blue Jay?” Tony whispered, his hand flying up to cover his mouth as his eyes became visibly wetter. Tony staggered forward a couple steps, staring at Bucky like he couldn’t believe that he was really there. Bucky took a step forward as well, a small smile gracing his features. 

 

A gunshot rang out and Tony dropped like a fly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao i would apologize if i were at all sorry  
> only one or two chapters left to go!


	9. Iron Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony Stark can save himself, but only sometimes.

Torture isn’t fun. Duh. But Tony couldn’t help but be disappointed that AIM sucked so bad at it. Maybe he was too used to it by now, which was a dark thought, but he honestly typically felt worse when he went a few days without sleep than he did right now. There were a couple of spotty patches in his memory, but there were more important things to think about.

 

Their reason for kidnapping him had also been so overdone. Forcing him to make weapons? Really? Come on, that was so 2008.

 

They had him for about a day when they made the crucial mistake of finally leaving him alone. It was the only reason why he hadn’t blown this popsicle stand yet. Sure, he made weapons, none that would work though. The only way they would do anything was if Tony set them off himself, at which they would all self-destruct and send the base to kingdom come.

 

When they finally left him alone, he was out of his chains in less than a minute, waiting a couple more until he pick locked the door and skedaddled. Tony knew that there was a computer two rooms away that would have the capabilities to send a message without anyone in AIM being notified. The message was sent 7 minutes after they left him alone. They really were dumb.

 

By his estimates, being in Maine, close to the Canadian border, it would take the team about 30 minutes by quinjet to make it after they got the message. Awesome, he had time to kill.

 

He gave the blueprint of the facility a quick glance so he’d know how to get out, before he started downloading information and destroying AIM’s mediocre firewalls so it could be that much easier for him when he got back to his lab. He did want to know what they were doing now that Killian was dead.

 

Before he knew it, 30 minutes had passed and it was time to put his plan into action. With the press of a button, he heard a small explosion. The bombs weren’t huge, he didn’t want to bring the whole building down on him, but there were quite a few of them. What could he say, he got bored. The obnoxious alarm started going off instantly and Tony’s grin widened.

 

Underground bases were kinda annoying, due to the fact that they weren’t as easy to escape as an abandoned warehouse was, but it was helpful because they can only be so big before structural integrity came into question.

 

Tony ran through the halls, not even questioning where he was going, and thanking every scientist he could think of that he didn’t even run into anyone. Seriously, they had a prisoner loose and they couldn’t even think about sending a couple goons to make sure that he was contained? Pathetic. He got much more insulting when he was tired.

 

Straight down the hall, take the east stairwell, take a right, take a left, north stairwell, second door to the right, down the hall all the way, turn left, immediate right, up the stairs, third hallway to the left. Was that- they had glowing green exit signs?

 

Tony was cackling in a way that one might describe as manic as he flung open the door and took a breath of fresh air. He noticed Steve a second later, the man looking at him like he was crazy. “Hey, Cap! Right on time! They tried to force me to make weapons, can you believe it?”

 

Steve smiled, a little confused and quite endearing. Tony saw a movement out of the corner of his eye and his whole head snapped to that direction. He froze, feeling tears come to his eyes and his hand involuntarily flying up to cover his mouth.

 

“Blue Jay?”

 

Tony staggered forwards a couple of steps, not believing what was in front of him. Blue Jay moved forwards too, a small smile gracing his features as well.

 

Then, a searing and debilitating pain radiated from Tony’s chest and he collapsed. He could tell that he had been shot, and tried as best as he could to not go into shock, but the human body could only withstand so much before he passed out.

 

It hurt,  _ god did it hurt _ . He couldn’t think, couldn’t hear, he could only feel the pain. Jeeze, it must have hit something vital if it was hurting this bad, hopefully not the arc reactor, there probably wasn’t a way to come back from an injury like that. Suddenly, the world went dark again.

 

He woke up again and he was still in pain, but now there were hands all over his body and a weird as hell feeling in his gut. He started panicking and thrashing. It felt like someone had stuck their hands in his gut and were performing some sort of intricate surgery.  _ Oh shit-! _

 

He woke up, but this time he didn’t feel the debilitating pain. It felt more like a bucket of bricks placed on his chest than anything else. His brain was also… not working. Drugs probably; remnants of a pretty hefty anesthesia and some pain meds. He could hear whispers from outside of his room, but refused to open his eyes because that was too much work. Instead, he just tried to make out what was being said. He couldn’t tell, but it sounded like a man and a woman who were both angry or frustrated. His brain hurt. He went back to sleep.

 

The next time he woke up, he was well and truly awake, aware of his surroundings and everything. He wasn’t alone, he could feel a weight by his knees, like someone was resting their legs or head on the bed next to him. It was nice, but Tony also really wanted water, so he cracked his eyes open.

 

The weight by his legs was actually Steve, his head pillowed on his arms resting on the bed in a way that couldn’t be comfortable. Tony, who was still struggling to talk, kicked his leg. Steve jolted awake and stood up in a blur. “Tony! Are you alright? Are you in pain?”

 

It was endearing, how much Steve cared. Tony opened his mouth and coughed a couple times, hoping that Steve would get the message. He thankfully did, grabbing a cup of ice chips from the bedside table and hand feeding him a couple.

 

A few minute later, Tony finally felt like he could speak again. “What happened?”

 

Steve looked slightly concerned, “How much do you remember?”

 

Tony thought for a minute, “Kidnapped, AIM, subpar torture, bombs, getting shot,” he felt like he was missing something, “Blue Jay! He was there, where is he!” Steve winced and looked pitiful. “Steve, Steve where is he?”

 

“He’s… gone.”

 

Tony choked, “Gone? What the hell do you mean he’s gone? He wouldn’t leave me, not again! He can’t, he wouldn’t-!” Steve cut him off by gently wrapping his arms around Tony, who was working himself up into a panic without even realizing it.

 

“I”m sorry, Tony. I’m so sorry.” The super soldier rocked the injured man as he broke down, sobbing into his friend’s arms.

 

-

 

Anthony got shot.  _ Anthony got shot _ . Blue Jay sprinted towards his unmoving body and could hear the man making gurgly, choked-off wheezes. When he skidded to a stop by Anthony, he took him up in his arms and looked over him clinically. Abrasions all over his arms, chest, and face, bruising on the arms, wrists, and face, a puncture mark on his neck the was turning purple. A GSW to the chest, too much blood to see where he had been hit. Too much blood.

 

Steve tried to pull him off and he snarled at him, hugging Anthony closer. “Buck, if you don’t let go of him right now he will die. We need to get him back to the tower, Bruce and Helen will be there to fix him. He’ll be fine, but you have to let go.”

 

The assassin did so, and Steve immediately scooped him up and started sprinting towards the quinjet in the forest. He spoke into the commes as he ran, “Take down the base, I’ll be getting Tony to the tower. JARVIS will send another jet to come get you when you’re done. Get any information about what they did to Tony, do it by any means possible.”

 

Bucky was comforted by the fact that Steve seemed to care about Tony so much and ran along with him. “I’m coming with you.”

 

“I know.”

 

When they got to the tower, Bruce and a team of doctors were there to get Tony into surgery. Some of them gave Bucky weird looks, but they quickly got back to work when he glared at them.

 

When Bucky tried to follow them into the operating room, he was stopped by a gentle hand on his chest. He glared down at the small asian woman who was stopping him. She glared right back at him, unmoving.

 

“Let me through.” he growled.

 

She looked unimpressed. “Absolutely not. That is my OR and that is my patient. If you go into that sterilized room, you will compromise everything. Wait in the viewing booth or get the hell out of here.” She turned on her heel and strutted away, a gaggle of nurses following after her. Bucky didn’t move.

 

“That’s Doctor Helen Cho.” Steve said walking up besides him, staring at the closing doors. “She’s the most licensed person in the world to be taking care of Tony, he’s in good hands.”

 

Steve waited with him in the viewing booth. Neither of them spoke, both of them paced around the room like restless animals. They watched as Doctor Cho barked orders to the other doctors, the whole room a flurry of activity, attempting to save Tony’s life.

 

Suddenly, Tony flatlined and the world seemed to stop. Steve and Bucky froze, but the activity in the room seemed to double as they worked to get Tony’s heart beating again. It seemed to be a year before they heard the monotonous beeping again, though it was more like a minute.

 

Bucky sprinted out of the room, Steve right on his heels, likely thinking that his old friend was about to run into the OR. Steve didn’t stop following when he passed the OR doors, or when he left the medical wing altogether, but finally stopped him when they reached the stairs.

 

“Bucky, where are you going?” Steve yelled, the other man freezing.

 

Bucky turned to him, tears in his eyes, “I’m leaving, I can’t stay here. I can’t stay here and watch him die. I can’t do that to myself, it would ruin me.”

 

Steve looked shocked, and then angry. “So you’re just going to leave him, when he needs you the most?! Look, I don’t know what you’re relationship is exactly, but I think we both know you can’t just leave him!”

 

“He won’t need me if he dies on an operating table! I’m selfish, I’m so selfish, but I can’t be here if he dies. I’ve lost him so many times, I can’t do it again!”

 

Steve stopped glaring at him, looking more understanding. “When he wakes up and you aren’t here, that will break him. I need you to know that before you run away. It will destroy him and it will be your fault.”

 

Steve turned around and marched back to the medical wing, leaving Bucky alone with his thoughts. The super soldier stood there, his thoughts at war with themself. Turning on his heel and running felt like a mistake that he wouldn’t be able to take back. He did it anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one chapter left to go!!!


	10. The Bunny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all is revealed.

When Steve got back to the viewing booth, Pepper was there too. “He flatlined again, only for a minute.” Neither spoke for a minute. “He ran, didn’t he?” Steve startled, and then nodded. Pepper sighed, “Of course he did.”

 

“How did you know?”   
  


“Because that’s exactly what Tony would have done. If I had been the one in there and I had flatlined, he’d run off to Malibu until there was confirmation that I was fine, or otherwise.”

 

“Will he come back?”

 

Pepper had a contemplative look on her face, “I’m not sure, probably. Tony would come back, but I obviously don’t know Barnes was well as I know Tony.”

 

“Did you know?”

 

“About the two of them? No, I had no clue. I know quite a bit about Tony, and the fact that he has some sort of relationship with Barnes explains a lot. Remind me to tell you about that time he competed in a knife throwing competition and won to get out of a board meeting.”

 

Steve laughed incredulously, “You’re kidding.”

 

Pepper shook her head fondly, “I wish I was, he’s the primary reason I have to watch my blood pressure. He’s stressful. He’s a fighter.”

 

The two of them looked back at Tony, laying there on that surgical table, face twitching. Wait, his face shouldn’t be twitching.

 

Tony woke up abruptly, thrashing around, fighting against the hands that were suddenly holding him down. Helen was yelling something about getting him a stronger sedative, but Steve could only look at Tony, who’s eyes were panicked and confused. They were also… orange?

 

“His eyes are orange.” Steve said, gaining the attention or Pepper. She looked down at Tony’s eyes too, seeing the same thing.

 

“Extremis. They injected him with Extremis.”

 

“Isn’t that what you have?”

 

“Yeah, but it’s an older version of the virus, who knows what AIM could have done with it in the past couple of years. His metabolism is probably much faster now, which explains why he’s woken up.”

 

Down in the OR, they put Tony back to sleep with the use of the same anesthesia that they gave Steve or Bruce when they needed it.

 

“How are we going to break it to him?” Steve asked later, when Tony had been transferred to a private room until he woke up and they could see the rest of the damage, or what Extremis did to him. Pepper sighed from where she was standing at the foot of the bed.

 

Pepper nodded her head towards the door and walked out, indicating that Steve should follow her. He stood up and did so without question. “We shouldn’t have this conversation in there, in case he wakes up.”

 

“So what should we do?” Steve asked again.

 

Pepper sighed again, “I think that you should break it to him, I’ll work on finding out where Barnes went.”

 

Steve’s brow furrowed, “Are you sure you shouldn’t be the one to break it to him? You know him better than I do.”

 

Pepper sounded frustrated, “Rogers, that man trusts you with his life. He cares about you so much more than I think you understand, we love each other, but I’m his boss and you’re his teammate. He needs you here.”

 

Steve nodded his agreement a second later, and Pepper turned away. Her skin was glowing and her gaunt was furious. Steve almost felt bad for Bucky for being at the receiving end of the fury of Pepper Potts. Almost.

 

He was there for Tony when he woke up, held him when he cried, held him when he shut down and wouldn’t talk. Steve loves Bucky with everything he has, but seeing Tony like this  _ because _ of Bucky made him want to strangle his oldest friend.

 

“Is he going to come back?” Tony asked, hours later. Steve was still holding him flush against his chest, Natasha and Sam had joined them in the room.

 

“He’ll come back. If he doesn’t, I’ll drag him back.” Steve said fiercely. Tony chuckled and Steve took that as a major victory.

 

-

 

Pepper Potts was angry, she was furious. Bucky Barnes didn’t know what was about to hit him. “JARVIS, is the Blue Jay protocol still in place?” Pepper asked when she strutted into Tony’s lab.

 

“Yes, ma’am. Though I believe it pertinent for you to know that Blue Jay is currently on a property that belongs to sir.”

 

Pepper stopped her pacing. “Which one?”

 

“Howard Stark’s New Jersey estate.”

 

She was there in less than half an hour. She hadn’t been to this particular property many times, but it looked just like she remembers. Large, gaudy, and pretentious. Just the right words to describe Howard Stark. She also had no clue why Barnes would come to this specific estate.

 

The door wasn’t locked, JARVIS had been integrated into the building a few years before, so she didn’t set off any security measures. She found Barnes sitting in a hall on the first floor, leaning against a door and shaking. She sat down across from him.

 

“Barnes.”

 

He didn’t even look up, “Ms. Potts.”

 

He sounded miserable. He sounded like he had just been screaming, his throat raw, voice quiet. Pepper felt a pang of sympathy for the man, but couldn’t stop picturing Tony looking so small and pale on that bed, surrounded by wires and tubes.

 

“Is he okay?” Barnes whispered, voice cracking half way through.

 

Pepper was silent, she was petty and she knew it, she wanted Barnes to wait. She wanted him to feel as guilty as he could about leaving Tony before she told him that Tony would be okay. It was seemingly working, as Barnes’ body got more and more tense. “He’ll be fine.” She finally spoke, and seeing Barnes relax like a puppet cut from it’s strings was satisfying in a way that it shouldn’t be.

 

“He’s going to want you to come back. We don’t know if you deserve to come back. Steve is furious at you, as am I. You left him when he needed you, running like the coward I didn’t think you were.”

 

Her words were probably harsher than they should be, but this was personal. This was Tony they were talking about.

 

Barnes stood up and turned to face the door, “Can I show you something?” Pepper was confused, but stood up too. Barnes opened the door and walked in, Pepper following behind him.

 

The room was obviously for a child, maybe a teen, likely belonging to Tony when he was younger.

 

“Prior to today, or yesterday, the last time that I saw Anthony was when he was 12 years old, in this exact room. I had to leave him here with a father who would periodically abuse him and then abandon him with a terrorist organization for years at a time. A mother who only cared about drugs and alcohol, to the point where she didn’t even notice that her child was gone.

 

I’ve known Anthony since he was only a couple months old. I was the only one there for his first steps, I was there for his first words, I taught him to talk, to read, to write, to fight. I taught him how to clean injuries when he would come back from being with his father with cuts and burns. I cared about him so deeply that even torture and brainwashing couldn’t erase him from by brain.”

 

Barnes turned to Pepper, who was shock still. “Ms. Potts. I am a coward. I ran away from him for the second time in my life. But please, please let me come back. I need- I need him again. I can’t live without him.”

 

Pepper nodded.

 

-

 

The team had gathered in Tony's hospital room, at the man's request. Steve was still holding him, and Natasha was holding his hands.

 

Tony took a deep breath and spoke, “I wanted to, uh, explain. Explain everything really, because I know you're all very confused about what happened.”

 

He seemed to struggle to find the words he was looking for.

 

“This is going to be really hard for me, because I've never told anyone about this stuff, it's been my best kept secret for literally my entire life.”

 

Natasha squeezed his hand as a show of support and Tony was eternally grateful for his whole team.

 

“The first memory I have of Howard Stark was when I was 4 years old and building my first circuit board. I think I had met him three or four times before that, but I can't remember those times.

 

“In an interview when I was 5, Maria forget my name completely and someone had to tell it to her. That interview was obviously erased from existence.”

 

Steve hugged Tony closer and the smaller man smiled.

 

“I wasn't raised by Howard and Maria, I wasn't raised by paid nannies, I wasn't even raised by Edwin Jarvis. I grew up in a tiny room in a HYDRA base by the most feared assassin in the last century.”

 

Tony turned his body slightly and looked at Steve, whose eyes were already misty.

 

“The man that Howard was when you knew him died when you went under the ice. I'm not sure when, but eventually he started working with HYDRA. He must have had a pretty high up position too because he got primary control over Blue Jay. Howard had him take care of me until I was 12 years old.”

 

Tony could hear some of the team gasp, but he couldn't stop looking at his hands. He laughed wetly.

 

“I probably would have been with him longer, but something happened. They took him away because he said something he shouldn't have, and they thought him compromised.”

 

Clint spoke up quietly, “Wait, is he like your dad then?”

 

Tony made a face, “Ew, no, he's just- he's just Blue Jay. He was like a really cool baby sitter, not like a dad.”

 

Steve hugged him tighter, “Tony-”

 

Tony cut him off, “I'm sorry, Steve. I'm so sorry. I knew for years that they had him, who he was, but I didn't- I couldn't save him. I tried so hard to find him, but I couldn't! He suffered for so long and it's all my fault!”

 

Suddenly, there was a cold hand on his face, and Tony gasped. His eyes shot open and he came face to face with Blue Jay, who was also crying. Anthony jumped from Steve's arms and wrapped his arms around Blue Jay's neck. The blue eyed man gripped Anthony tightly and picked him up.

 

Anthony switched to his first language, “I'm sorry, I love you! I love you so much, I'm so sorry!”

 

Blue Jay hushed him as the shorter man wrapped his legs around the taller man's waist. “It's okay Bunny,  it's not your fault. I'm sorry for running, I'm sorry for leaving.”

 

The rest of the team filed out of the room as the two hugged, wanting to give them a private moment to themselves. Blue Jay sent a thankful look to Steve, who nodded firmly.

 

They sat back down on the bed, not speaking for a long couple of minutes.

 

“Do you really think I'm so weak that I'd let a bullet kill me?” Anthony asked quietly, just a touch insecure.

 

Blue Jay hugged him tighter, refusing to let go. “No, of course not, but I know I'm so weak that if it had, I might just have died too.”

 

They refused to let each other go for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and it's done!!! i hope you liked it, bc i have a couple follow up stories planned, and i would love to hear what any of you want to see!

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are appreciated!!!  
> my tumblr is @pomegranate-boy, come talk to me!


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